It means Optimal Function. When we are functioning
optimally, our body, its organ systems and the very cells that make up
those systems are working and functioning at their fullest.

Within
the body is an inherent ability to heal and provide optimal function.
This ability has been labeled in various healing professions as the
body’s vital force, innate intelligence, 'prana', and 'chi'. The
scientific community refers to this phenomenon as homeostasis. Imbalance
in different areas of the body can impede or block the body’s normal
attempts to self-regulate and self-heal. —That is, to return to
homeostasis. To get well and stay well, you must also treat the cause by
determining how your structure, biochemistry and mind function and what
must be done to create the conditions required for optimal function to
be present.

Functional Wellness Guidelines

Understand the Spectrum of Health

Realize that many body problems are dysfunctional, and
not pathological in nature.

Replenish function to bring about health

Restore function by restoring all sides of the triad of
health: Structural, Biochemical, and Mental/Emotional

Give the body time to heal The Spectrum of Health.

There is a
Spectrum of Health
in everyone’s body. Where you are,
relative to the spectrum, fluctuates over time and is
dependent on different variables. Traveling in both
directions takes time, with neither one occurring overnight.
Just as an unhealthy lifestyle over time can lead to
illness, so the road back to health may take some time as
well.

The Spectrum of Health

In reinstating function to your
body’s systems, emphasis is placed on finding the
cause of the dysfunction and eliminating it to allow
the body’s own healing mechanisms to restore natural
function and vitality. Functional
wellness is NOT geared
towards simply eliminating symptoms.
In the truest holistic sense, you are more than the
simple sum of your parts. Therefore, any true
holistic wellness philosophy must be aimed at
treating you as a whole person, rather than simply
where the pain or symptoms lay.

Most Problems Are
Dysfunctional In Nature

When a part of your body is not functioning in its
proper capacity, other parts of your body adapt.
Quite often this adaptation goes unnoticed by our
conscious mind and produces no noteworthy symptoms.
However, many times illness or problems can be
traced back to a point where you ‘just didn’t feel
right.’ The more you slide backwards on the spectrum
of health, the more body adaptations start to come
into play, and more and more ‘symptoms’ start to be
experienced. Quite often there is no pathological
evidence of disease or illness quite yet.
Western medicine is quite good at detecting
pathology (an abnormal manifestation in the body
known as disease). However quite often the tests
designed so well to diagnose pathology miss when the
body is not at its proper level of function. This
can lead to the body slowing developing from a
functional imbalance into disease over time.

Balance All Sides of
the Triad of Health

Functional Healthcare looks at the totality of who
you are and who you are capable of being. Functional
Healthcare looks at the effects of your environment
and lifestyle habits on your health and who you are
genetically, in terms of your inherent strengths and
weaknesses. Your health can then be protected based
on that knowledge.

Any of the healing arts can utilize a Functional
Healthcare approach, though many disciplines within
the healings arts will tend to have unique strengths
(and weaknesses) in terms of how broadly and deeply
they affect the structural, chemical, and mental
aspects of a person’s health.

All sides of the triad of health must be considered
for you to experience your fullest expression of
health. In reality, there is no separation between
structure (body and nervous system), chemistry, and
mental (mind and spirit). They all are one.

Taking Responsibility
for your Own Health

Ultimately, the one responsible for your own healing
is you. Every day is filled with choices that lead
us in the direction of health and wellness or down
the spectrum towards dysfunction and disease.
It is vital to understand that you are the most
important person involved in your own healing. That
means unless you are doing your part to support,
nourish and take care of your body with the guidance
of a health care professional, the chances of
success are reduced.

Taking responsibility to do the things that bring
you health, such as proper sleep, proper
nourishment, emotional/mental stress levels,
exercise, are not just helpful, but necessary. If a
person works 8-12 hours a day, rushes through or
skips meals, eats food lacking in good nutrition,
gets little sleep, is in a stressful relationship,
how is the body expected to be able to heal itself?

Given time, the body can do
amazing things! By applying the concepts of
functional wellness, you too can experience the
benefits of personal optimum health!